Investigating Paradise
Tahqiq fel djenna
SECTION: International Forum 2017, Open Eyes 2017
SCREENINGS
Sunday, 01.10., 11.00 a.m., kinoeins
Tuesday, 03.10., 8.15 p.m., Festsaal, Q&A with Salima Abada
SYNOPSIS
In this entertaining but disturbing film, Merzak Allouache sends out an actress disguised as a journalist to uncover the secret behind the 72 willing virgins supposed to attend to Islamic martyrs in paradise. How big is paradise if it can accommodate all the martyrs? What happens to female martyrs? Do they get to cook again? It may sound comical but the background is very serious. The journalist Nedjma discovers a very popular YouTube video of a Salafist preacher who currently has a major influence on young Algerian men. She confronts them with probing questions about their ideas of paradise and women. She also talks to various religious representatives, artists and feminists. The impact of the sometimes absurd interpretations
of religion is very real: Young men are being incited to sacrifice their lives, while the lives of young women
are becoming even more restricted.
MERZAK ALLOUACHE
Merzak Allouache was born in Algeria in 1944. He studied filmmaking in Algiers at the Institut National du Cinéma and subsequently at IDHEC in Paris. In 1976, he directed his first featurefilm Omar Gatlato. Since then, he has been directing films in France and Algeria. His films have frequently been selected by prestigious international festivals such as Cannes, Venice or Berlin.
FILMOGRAPHY
Bab el Oued City (1993), L’autre monde (2000), The Rooftops (2013), Investigating Paradise (2017)
